McCaffery: Hinkie's insistence on the injured is his biggest risk

Gambling on a few years of basketball purgatory to collect high draft picks is one thing. But the preference of Sixers GM Sam Hinkie to use those picks on high-risk players with checkered injury pasts like Joel Emiid is a risk unto itself. (Associated Press)

Ever since Sam Hinkie started to do his thing, there have been two classes of 76ers observers. There are those who believe in his plan to remove any chance of winning now in exchange for a certainty of winning later. And there are those who suspect a con game.

Pick one side and own it. Insist that the Sixers build for later. Or hold Hinkie accountable for assembling bad basketball teams. At this point, neither argument is absurd. But there is one common theme. Both eventually demand success. With that, there is this question: Where — where? — in any plan for winning is the logic in investing highly in players prone to injury?

Joel Embiid is one of those players. He is 20 and already was unavailable when his college team needed him the most due to a stress-fractured back, and later required two screws in his foot after breaking that, too.

That’s not a character judgment, not a muffled jinx, not an official prediction of continued struggle. But the Sixers just stuffed a 26-game losing streak into a 63-loss season with the lure of being permitted to select high in the draft, then invested their riches on a player whose medical file couldn’t be squeezed into a commercial jet’s overhead compartment.

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“When I had the surgery,” Embiid said, “I thought I might drop into the second round.”

He should have dropped into the second round, and for one reason: There is no longer a third round.

It was different when the Sixers collected their second pick, Dario Saric, by way of typically complicated draft-night maneuvering with Orlando. Like Embiid, Saric was widely labeled as a risk because he has a two-year commitment to play in Turkey. The Saric acquisition, though, was consistent with a together-we-build scheme. He could use more seasoning anyway, and according to the blueprint he should be peaking at about the time the Sixers are ready to contend.

Hinkie could have a star in Embiid, who liberally throws around the names Hakeem Olajuwon, Tim Duncan and David Robinson in conversation about himself. But until he proves he can play consistently without something cracking, he’d be more accurate mentioning Greg Oden.

The Phillies took a chance on a brittle player in 2002, waiting until talented but injury-challenged Cole Hamels became available at No. 17 overall. Within six years, they were world champions, and Hamels was the World Series MVP. Even when the Sixers grabbed Nerlens Noel at No. 6 in 2013, it made some sense. He had been projected No. 1. There was a certain value there, even if it was known that he wouldn’t suit up for a while.

At No. 3, though, there were too many other ways to go, too many healthy players to select, too many options to trade down to select Embiid, if absolutely necessary.

The Sixers don’t want to — and don’t have to — win now. But if they are injured later, they won’t win then, either.

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Do you get those lanes in the center of a road that allow for traffic in both directions to make turns? Not me.

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The United States lost in the Sweet 16 of the World Cup, scoring a total of one goal in their last two games, overtimes included. According to the know-it-alls, that was a spectacular achievement, one worthy of motivating fans to spend hours standing in hot parks watching the matches on TV.

Ah … no.

But that’s soccer in our country. Win, lose, lose in overtime, who cares? Clearly, it’s all just about over-dressing in team colors and screaming. That’s what goes on in Chester, at the Union games. The fans, ever loyal, sing and chant and insult the other team all night, yet never seem to demand that the home team kick a ball into a net.

In some countries — and this isn’t right, either — violence erupts when a side loses. Here, where the soccer fan has been trained from age 2 to believe that just competing is enough, there is not that passionate demand for success.

Soccer will not be proven relevant in the United States just because TV ratings are high for certain games once every four years. U.S. soccer will be relevant when a 2-1 loss to Belgium is a cause to rip the players, not invite them onto late-night TV shows to take bows.

* And one more thing: With all the soccer scholarships available to colleges, the United States darn should be a world power by now. Just saying.

Has anyone ever — and that means ever — said to themselves, “You know what would be fun — to repeatedly grope a police officer’s a-double-scribble”?

Anyone?

According to Ottawa police, that’s what Claude Giroux did, explaining why he had to spend a night in jail.

Giroux has apologized, and the police said they won’t file charges. OK. Who among us has never done something regrettable?

As for the Flyers, Ron Hextall issued some blah-blah-blah statement and declared the issue closed. But Giroux is the Flyers’ captain. And even if the next sports mini-scandal is never more than 24 hours away, it’s tough to imagine that such a public incident won’t compromise Giroux’s ability to lead the occasional players-only meeting without cackling breaking out in the room.

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I don’t care what it makes me, but I don’t get the term “haters.”

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Reports are that Eagles’ tackle Lane Johnson was caught having used performance-enhancers and may be ordered to serve a four-game suspension this season. First, DeSean Jackson was cut without a thorough explanation. Now, potentially, this.

It’s one thing if a player becomes injured, or is traded for value, or even if he retires. But no NFL offense — not even Chip Kelly’s reinvention-of-football variety — can continue to survive such unforced errors.

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Just a quick search of the news reports from the NBA Draft will reveal that the Cavaliers, Kings, Bulls, Wizards, Sixers and Jazz had used it in an effort to (every-body-clap-your-hands) change … the … culture. About time.